The Foschini Group (TFG) plans to close about 280 stores in Africa through 2029 as the retailer focuses on online sales, which are outpacing its physical operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cape Town-based company, which also has operations in the UK and Australia, said about 80 outlets would fall within its closure parameters in the year ending in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that 100 additional exits are being considered in each of the following two fiscal years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foschini closed 85 shops it deemed no longer economically viable in the 21 weeks through 22 August 2026, it said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was offset by the opening of 25 new stores during the current period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a trading update on its operations for the 21 weeks ended 22 August, TFG recorded group sales rising by just 0.2% to R23 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While sales at its physical African stores rose 0.2% in the period, sales online surged 54%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was driven by the Bash platform Foschini uses for its brands, including Sportscene, Totalsports, Markham, Fabiani, @home, American Swiss and Exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGlobally, the consumer is expected to remain under pressure in the near term,\u201d Foschini said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that it will maintain \u201ca disciplined approach to credit extension and space optimisation, while continuing to focus on growing online penetration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retailers in South Africa, Foschini\u2019s biggest market, are navigating a shopping landscape in an economy that has expanded at less than 1% annually on average for more than a decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chronic unemployment has resulted in consumers seeking more value for their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Group online sales now contribute almost 16% to total sales compared with about 14% a year earlier, Foschini said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The retail group has more than 3,400 stores in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking ahead, TFG said that, globally, consumers are expected to remain under pressure in the near term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Management will maintain a disciplined approach to credit extension and space optimisation, while continuing to focus on growing online penetration. The outlook remains cautious,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(With Bloomberg)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Foschini Group (TFG) plans to close about 280 stores in Africa through 2029 as the retailer focuses on online sales, which are outpacing its physical operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":843517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2095134156170711192","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2193817841438615","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18142318762604908","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[9214],"class_list":["post-873425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-tfg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873426,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873425\/revisions\/873426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}